Community service
by Auburn Waves
Summary: Random stories. Faustina reflects on her decision to become the Blue djinn when she has to set a punishment for the Gaunt twins
1. Community Service

**This is a one-shot because I think we need to fill up the archive.**

**Community service**

I don't know how it started, but I do know how it finished, I was not about to give out an unjust punishment to anyone, but it was Philippa and John. I felt slightly guilty as I passed my sentence of community service for a month without magic.

Some people might have said it was too lenient, but luckily nobody said anything. I could see their guilty faces looking up at me with a hidden trace of longing. A longing for me to return to being me: Faustina. What could I do?

I knew just how long I had to live and my death was inevitable as is everybody's. How I longed for those days when I could talk with them like friends, when there could be a future for me and for someone else... But now I had no chance to do anything else, but what I had agreed to. I felt like I had a binding on me all the time; I could never do what I wanted.

"Community service?" groaned John.

"It is a fitting punishment," I replied.

"It was an accident," he protested.

"It may have been, but do you dare to deny that you two are solely responsible for the collapse of the Statue of Liberty?" I inquired before going into a rant. "Do you have any idea how long that will take to rebuild?"

"Well..." he started, but I cut him off.

"This way you both get to know what it is like," I smiled.

"You're not making us..." guessed Philippa and I nodded with a small laugh despite myself.

I must have sounded pretty cruel because both of them looked slightly angry.

"Fine," said the two twins at the same time, both sulky.

With that they left, noses held high in such a way that you almost say they were indignant and that anyone looking may have believe the punishment was too harsh instead of what it was: the opposite.

I sighed as they left me without a single glance behind, like they were finally giving up on me, but I should have known better. I saw them off to the building site where they were entered among the builders, and believed to belong. They waved goodbye to me when they had got over the punishment, but it was a heart-wrenching wave.

I sighed as I was taken back to my headquarters. I didn't really want to be the Blue djinn anymore, but what choice did I have. I hadn't only done this for me, but for the Gaunt twins. They had missed their mother so much and they had come to find me just so they could have her back. I had felt duty-bound to take the role, not to mention what had been believed before my accident. I would make a good Blue djinn, they had said. How could I refuse?

I would have to spend the rest of my life lonely.

What I really wanted was to see the Gaunt's again, to have friends again. But alas, it could never be. The life of the Blue djinn is a life of solitude.

**That's it, tell me what you think. **

**Disclaimer: Children of the Lamp is not my own creation.**


	2. A Day in Iravotum

**I've decided to make it a series of drabbles, mostly unrelated, but all from Faustina's point of view.**

**A Day in Iravotum**

I didn't want to spend a day in Iravotum let alone 30 days. I hated the place, mostly because it is so tempting. I walked up those stairs a while ago to find out when I would die. It's even worst than not knowing. Now I feel like I'm just sitting here, waiting for that fatal accident to happen. It's quite tragic knowing what the future holds.

I didn't like the place either, even if it did look exactly how I wanted it to. It had an eeriness to it since I had decided to have invisible servants just like the old Blue djinn. I hated looking out at the forest and I hated the fact that I was so alone in Iravotum.

I didn't really want to stay so I decided to use the trick I had discovered a while ago when studying the Bagdad rules. I ejected my spirit from my body so that I could find a new one outside of Iravotum. A knew one where I could possibly visit the Gaunt twins. I hadn't seen them since I sentenced them to helping to rebuild the Statue of Liberty (without magic) for their community service.

I had chosen the body of a bee once, but that had led to quite disastrous consequences, so this time I had decided upon a bird, just a sparrow, but a good sparrow. How I was going to get to New York though was quite a different matter.

I definitely wasn't going to fly all the way as a spirit. I hated being out-of-body for too long. I had spent many years in that situation and I did not desire it anymore. In fact, I had never desired it the first place.

As I left Iravotum and Iraq as a sparrow, I flew West towards Europe so that on the way to the Gaunt's I could maybe visit Nimrod. He was such a dear really.

**Kind of pointless these drabbles really.**


	3. Tea and Biscuits

**Yes, another one while I finish off the next Fang of Siberia chapter.**

**Tea and Biscuits**

I admit I should have been a decade or so older than I was, but that's what happens when you fly around as a spirit for a while. I not saying it was pleasant because it was quite the opposite. I had began to feel sick and ill a lot and everybody seemed to have forgotten I had ever existed. It had been disturbing at the best of times.

I looked down to see the English channel stretching below me and the white cliffs of Dover ahead. It had been a long flight and I couldn't wait to get a good rest when I arrived at Nimrod's place.

When I finally arrived, I flew in through the library window and landed unfortunately in his cup of tea. It took me a moment to realise what had happened and to thought communicate my annoyance to Nimrod who was sitting comfortably in a chair.

"What kind of an idiot leaves his tea lying around for innocent birds to fall into?" I asked.

"That Groanin," he laughed mockingly. "I'll have to have a word with him about _innocent_ birds."

I tried to narrow my eyes and snarl, but then I realised how weird it would look on a bird, and so evidently did Nimrod. He was trying not to laugh. It was hard to get angry when somebody was being so polite.

"What rings you here then?" asked Nimrod.

"I thought I'd take a trip to visit the twins in New York," I replied.

"Good for you," he smiled. "Are you checking on their community service?"

"That too, but it is just meant to be a friendly visit," I told him.

"I see," he said distantly. "Say, how did they actually make the statue collapse?"

"It's a long story," I replied.

"I've got lots of tea," he prompted.

"Is that meant to be funny?" I inquired rudely, remembering that I had fallen in one not too long ago.

"Biscuits?" he ventured.

"Fine," I gave in. "It was a week ago and they were playing a game of catch..."

"Catch?" nimrod interrupted incredulously.

"Yes," I confirmed. "Catch...with a canon ball."

"What?"

"Please stop interrupting."

"Sorry," he apologised. "Please continue."

"Anyway," I dismissed the off-topic conversation. "They were playing catch with a canon ball when John, big surprise, said he could hit the torch on the statue of liberty."

"That was a bit stupid..."

I fixed him with a stare to make him shut up.

"Yes, it was and Philippa, silly girl and very unlike herself thought it would be interesting to encourage him. Then guess what," I paused for a second. "The canon ball hit the torch smashing it to pieces. The Philippa not noticing what had happened said that she could hit the crown. When she threw the ball it felt smack bang on the centre of liberty's head and crashed through all the levels to the ground shaking it like an earthquake. And the statue collapsed. Simple as."

"I think I'm going to be having a word with those two about what it is acceptable to play catch with and what is an acceptable challenge," concluded Nimrod.

"Indeed," I agreed before pecking away at my biscuit.

**That's how they destroyed the statue. I hope you all liked it.**


End file.
